


Rekindle

by waitingforyouonce



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:14:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24094159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waitingforyouonce/pseuds/waitingforyouonce
Summary: After seeing Laurel and Ted together, a jealous Oliver decides to make a declaration that will forever change his relationship with her.
Relationships: Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen
Comments: 1
Kudos: 20





	Rekindle

**Author's Note:**

> So this is going to be an alternate S3 that is focused on Oliver and Laurel’s relationship. Just a fair warning, it’s been years since I’ve watched S3 and even then I mostly only paid attention to what was going on with Laurel so there will be a lot of things that are different from canon. Most of S2 happened except Oliver and Sara never got back together and Oliver dealt with Laurel’s addiction better. Basically things like hallway scene between them in 2x14 happened a lot differently and they were on good terms a sooner.

Oliver stands in front of a sparring dummy, his mind filled with images of Laurel and Ted Grant together. Logically he knows nothing romantic has happened between them and the other man is only training her, but he also knows that something could happen eventually. Especially after the way he’s been acting for the past few weeks.

When Laurel asked him to train her so she could pick up where Sara left off, he said no because he’d been terrified that what happened with Sara would happen to Laurel. He assumed that would be the end of it, but he really should’ve remembered that when Laurel is set on doing something she’ll find a way to make it happen. 

Instead of moving on Laurel began training with Grant and over the last several weeks he knows that the two have grown closer. He hadn’t liked that, but he also knew that he couldn’t exactly stop Laurel from going to the gym. So it wasn’t until Grant was accused of murder that he tried to put a stop to it.

He’s ashamed to admit it, but a tiny part of him had been almost relieved when those bodies were found in Grant’s gym because he assumed meant that Laurel would no longer be working with Grant. Instead, Laurel ended up defending Grant and refusing to believe her trainer was responsible for those murders.

Oliver had been afraid that her judgment had been clouded due to her relationship with Grant and they’d even gotten into an argument when he asked her to stay away from him. Ultimately, Laurel had been right about Grant being innocent, but it took Grant’s former partner nearly killing Laurel and Grant for the latter’s name to be cleared.

Pulling Laurel from that burning car had made him realize that the reason he’s been so hostile to Grant wasn’t just about Laurel’s safety, it was also because he was jealous of the amount of time she’s been spending with the boxer.

On some level he’d known that his love for Laurel hadn’t gone away, but he hadn’t been ready to admit it until tonight. Now everything in him is telling him to tell her, but he’s already hurt her enough. Not to mention he’s not sure that she even feels that way about him and even if she did she deserves better than him.

Frustrated, he swings hard at the dummy.

Bam! Bam!

He hits it over and over again, only stopping when he hears John’s voice.

“You should really tell her how you feel, man.”

He stiffens and slowly turns around to face his friend. Is he really that easy to read when it comes to Laurel? “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Come on,” John scoffs, “We both know that you’re punching the hell out of that dummy because of Felicity’s date with Palmer.”

Oliver relaxes slightly when he realizes that John believes his workout session was about Felicity, deciding not to correct him. He wants to tell John that it’s not Felicity that he’s in love with, but he knows how John views his relationship with Laurel and he doesn’t really want to hear his criticisms right now.

As for Felicity, he has to admit that he’s a bit surprised by the news. He’s not trying to be conceited, but he’s kind of surprised that she has moved on so fast after he told her nothing romantic could happen between them.

A few months ago, he told Felicity he loved her and even kissed her in order to get Slade away from Laurel and draw him out. Once everything was over, John had insisted that he really had feelings for Felicity and for a brief moment Oliver tried to convince himself that was the case, but he quickly realized that he was really using Felicity to try and ease his loneliness. So he ended things between them before they could even start.

He hoped they could move on from there, but somehow John and Felicity to a lesser extent believe that he decided against the relationship because of his vigilante alter ego and he knows both are holding out hope that he’ll change his mind. So he’s glad that she’s found someone else because it gives him hope that she’ll be able to move on from him. Not to mention it makes him feel less guilty about putting them in this situation in the first place.

“I’m fine, John. I’m glad Felicity is moving on. She deserves someone that can give her what she needs and I’m not that guy.”

John frowns, hating how stubborn Oliver is being. “You could be that guy, but you keep insisting that you have to do it alone. If you actually opened up to the woman you love you could actually be happy.”

Oliver says nothing and moves to continue his workout.

John lets out an exasperated sigh and decides to head home for the night, leaving Oliver in the bunker alone.

Oliver punches the dummy a few more times before stepping away and taking off his gloves. Before he came down here, he’d been planning on doing nothing about his feelings for Laurel, but what John said resonated with him.

He’s always been at his happiest with Laurel in his life, but he’s spent the last year pushing her away and making himself miserable in the process. It’s about time he is actually honest with the woman he loves. He’s not sure how things will go when he goes to see Laurel, but he knows that he at least has to try.

* * *

Laurel is just getting ready to get dressed for bed when she hears a knock at her door. She looks through the peephole and isn’t really all that surprised to see Oliver standing there. He’s the only person that’s been to her apartment in the last few weeks. Especially after her father decided leave town once she told him about Sara’s death.

At first she’d thought about keeping it secret because she was afraid what the news might do to him, but she remembers how upset she was when he decided to keep the fact that Sara was alive a secret from her and ended up telling him. He hadn’t handled it well at all. He started drinking again and began to lash out at her the way he did the first time Sara died.

She’d been unable to drag him out of bars the way she did before without risking her own sobriety and she felt guilty about it. Thankfully her father realized he needed help and checked himself into rehab, but he made it clear before he left that he couldn’t handle being in Starling City anymore. That had been the last time anyone has been to her apartment. So she knows if Oliver’s here it’s for a reason.

He knocks again and she hesitates, not wanting to get into yet another argument with him about her training to become a vigilante or Ted. Knowing that Oliver is stubborn enough to keep bugging her until she agrees to talk to him, Laurel sighs and opens the door.

Right away she takes in how good he looks and how amazing he smells. She silently admonishes herself for noticing despite how irritated she is with him. Especially once she remembers their most recent disagreement.

Laurel sighs, suddenly exhausted. “Oliver, if you came here to criticize me again I’m not really in the mood right now.”

“No, actually one of the reasons I’m here is to apologize for the way I’ve been acting for the last few weeks,” he says instead, surprising her. “Can I come in?”

Laurel nods and opens her door wider, inviting him inside.

Oliver smiles gratefully as he walks inside her apartment. He takes a look around, immediately spotting a punching bag and other training equipment in a section of the living room. Seeing that makes it even more clear that she’s serious about her training and stresses just how wrong it was to try to take that away from her.

Laurel crosses her arms, waiting for Oliver to say something.

“Laurel, I’m sorry that I’ve been a jerk about you training to become a vigilante. It’s not that I don’t think you’re capable of it. I know you can do it, but vigilantes live dangerous lives and after what happened to Sara I’m terrified that the same could happen to you.” He pauses as he tries to erase the image of Laurel lying dead in the bunker instead of Sara from his mind.

Once it finally clears he continues, his eyes shiny with emotion, “It’s why I said no to training you when you asked me all those weeks ago. I know how much you want to find the person that killed Sara and avenge her death, but I was afraid if I trained you I would be putting you right in that person’s crosshairs” he looks intently into her eyes, “I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you.”

Laurel’s feels herself soften towards him after weeks of anger and tension. This is the first time Oliver has actually explained why he was so against her becoming a vigilante. She still doesn’t agree with his reasoning, but it is better than him implying she wasn’t cut out for it like before.

“Ollie, something could happen no matter what I did. Do you know how many death threats I’ve gotten just because of my work with CNRI and the DA’s office? How many threats I’ve gotten because of my father or even my association with the Arrow?”

Oliver has to admit that she has a point. She was getting death threats before he even came back into her life. And she’s been kidnapped and attacked quite a bit over the last couple of years.

“As for Sara, I’ll admit that I did start begin training because of her, but now it’s become something different.”

He raises an eyebrow in surprise. That had been the last thing he expected her to say. “What do you mean?”

“Since I started training with Ted I realize that I need an outlet, Ollie. I’ve been so angry since Sara’s death and part of me has been afraid that I would lose my sobriety, especially after seeing my dad lose his. Training has helped ease some of that anger and I even feel more secure in my sobriety, but seeing yet another victim be screwed over made me realize that I want to do more.”

At Laurel’s revelation, he feels an even bigger stab of guilt for not voicing his actual concerns weeks ago instead of pushing her away. He’d been so focused on keeping her safe they never had an actual conversation. If they had things could have been a lot better between them a while ago. Since there’s nothing he can do about the past, he focuses on the last part of her explanation. “I’m sensing there’s a story.”

Laurel nods and begins to explain the event that culminated in her going to Ted for training.

“Not long after I asked you to train me I met a woman in AA who’d been viciously attacked by her abusive boyfriend. I looked into the case and with all the evidence it should have been open and shut, but the judge apparently felt sorry for him and he ended up getting a slap on the wrist. The moment he was released he went right back to terrorizing her and even broke her arm. Of course after what happened with her last case, she’s too afraid to press charges again. I love being a lawyer, but it’s not enough for me anymore. I’ve seen so many people get screwed over by the system and I need to find a way to help the people the system fails.”

Now Oliver gets why she’s been even more adamant about the vigilante thing lately. “I’m not going to pretend like you joining this fight doesn’t worry me, but I get needing an outlet. Being the Arrow gives me an outlet and it wasn’t right of me to try and decide for you. I’m sorry I’ve been giving you a hard time and if you’re still willing I want to start training you.”

When she first opened her door, Laurel had assumed that Ollie had been planning on lecturing her about training again. The last thing she expected was for him to apologize and actually tell her his concerns before offering to train her. She smiles happily, already feeling eager to further her training.

“I’ll train with you, but I’m going to keep training with Ted.” She sees the confusion in his eyes and decides to explain, “When I finally go out on field, I want to be as prepared as I possibly can be and I think learning from more than one person is the best way to go.”

Oliver can’t say he’s thrilled that she’s continuing her training with Grant from a personal standpoint, but from professional standpoint it’s definitely a good idea. “Okay, we’ll get started this weekend if that’s alright.”

“That’s fine,” Laurel agrees with a nod. She sees Oliver’s demeanor change and is shocked when she realizes that he’s nervous. “Ollie, you seem nervous all of a sudden. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay. It’s the other reason I came to here tonight.” He begins to pace only stopping when Laurel steps in front of him and rests a hand on his shoulder.

“Ollie, you know you can tell me anything.”

“I want to explain why you being around Grant has been bothering me so much. It isn’t just that you were training with him, I also knew you were getting closer to him outside of that and I was jealous.”

Laurel’s heart begins to pound at his words and she removes her hand from his shoulder. Is he saying what she thinks he’s saying? That doesn’t make sense though. She’s noticed the tension between him and Felicity and had assumed it would only be a matter of time before they got together.

“Ollie, why would you be jealous? After everything that’s happened I assumed you didn’t feel that way anymore.”

“You mean because of Felicity?”

Laurel nods.

“I latched onto her because I was lonely and I thought it would be easier to focus on something new.”

“Oliver, that’s horrible,” she admonishes, not liking the idea of him using Felicity that way. Laurel’s seen the way she looks at him and can tell the other woman is in love with him.

“I know,” he agrees “it’s why I told her nothing could happen between us. It wouldn’t have been right for me to get involved with her knowing I didn’t feel the same way.”

“So that’s why there’s been so much tension between you two lately?”

“Yes and I think she was still holding onto hope that I might change my mind. I know John is,” he frowns as he remembers his earlier conversation with him.

“Do you think you might change your mind?”

Oliver shakes his head immediately and steps closer to her, meeting her gaze imploringly. “Laurel, I love you. I always have and I know I always will, but I let my fear get in the way. I thought I had to be alone to be the Arrow, but I’m starting to realize how wrong that was. When I pulled you out of that burning car, I realized that anything could happen and I don’t want to spend another minute away from you. I know you probably don’t feel the same way, but –”

“I do feel the same way,” she interrupts him. “When we lost Tommy I felt so guilty for wanting to be with you. I thought it was better for us not to be together and when you started dating those other women I assumed you agreed.”

“It’s what I wanted everyone to think.” He swallows hard. “It was easier for me to move onto someone new than to face my fears and admit that my life only makes sense when you are by my side. I love you, Laurel.” He repeats his earlier declaration again. Now that he’s finally admitted out loud he wants to say it as much as he can.

She reaches out and cups his cheek. “I love you too, Ollie.”

Oliver leans into the touch, the feel her hand against his skin sending tingles down his spine. “I don’t want to waste any more time,” he says his voice rough with emotion.

“Then we won’t,” Laurel says before leaning up and kissing him.

Oliver grips her shoulders and pulls her against him. She opens her mouth to his, groaning as their mouths move together almost frantically. It’s been over a year since they’ve shared anything more than a hug and he wonders how he even survived being without her.

Laurel pulls away after a few moments and rests her forehead against his. “Ollie, I want this, but we’ve done this before and it didn’t end well,” she says softly. “We need to do this right and do things differently this time.”

Oliver nods, “I think part of the problem was that I wasn’t always honest with you about how I was feeling. I was guilty of that before the island and though it was for different reasons I know I was guilty of it once I came back from the island. So let’s agree to be honest with each other.”

Laurel agrees, adding “And for now I think we should keep things between us. I want this work, but I also know that the moment we go public it will change things and I want our relationship to be more stable first.” It’s not that she’s ashamed of being Oliver, but every decision she makes these days tends to be attributed to her grieving Sara. She doesn’t want her relationship with Oliver to be considered one of those things.

Although part of him wants to shout out his love for Laurel to the world, he agrees with her stance. Not only will they have to deal with the press, but between Lance’s dislike of him, John’s disbelief that he can be with Laurel while also being the Arrow, and Felicity’s lingering feelings for him, it’s better for them to keep things quiet for now.

“I agree. We keep things quiet until we’re both comfortable making our relationship public.” He starts to lean down to kiss her only to abruptly pause when he sees the clock on the wall. “As much as I want to continue this, it’s getting pretty late and I know you need to get some sleep for work in the morning.”

“Actually, the DA’s office gave me the rest of the week off. I guess they thought it would look bad for me to come in after being held at gunpoint and pulled from a burning car so if you want to stay…” her eyes make it clear just what she wants to do if he decides to stay.

Oliver responds by pressing her up against the wall and kissing her deeply before she can say another word.

Laurel’s hands slide into his short hair and she kisses him back just as deeply. She trembles, surprised by how intense the kiss is. It feels different than anything she’s felt before with him.

He lets out a groan as he pulls away from her mouth to push her suit jacket off her shoulders. His mind is telling him to take things slow and be gentler, but he’s been waiting so long to have Laurel back in his arms he knows it’s going to be more frantic this time. And based on the way Laurel is moving against him, she agrees.

She removes her hands from his hair to rip open his shirt while he pulls her shirt over her head. Once they are both shirtless, Oliver goes for her bra, nearly breaking the clasp with how eager he is.

Laurel gasps the moment his hands wrap around her breasts and begins to tease her nipples with his fingers. She’s missed this so much.

Oliver bends down so he can bury his face in her neck. Laurel’s eyes fall close and a moan escapes when she feels his lips trail from her earlobe, her neck, and shoulders. Laurel is so focused on what he’s doing that she doesn’t realize at first that he’s managed to unbutton her jeans until he’s pushing them down her legs.

The second she steps out of them, he follows it up by ripping her panties off her and sliding his hand between her legs. He lets out a grunt when his fingers immediately become coated with her arousal as he runs them along her clit. He repeats the gesture several times, drawing out moans and gasps from Laurel.

Their eyes lock and he quickly presses his mouth to hers for a fiery kiss. Laurel clutches at his shoulders, her nails digging into his back as he continues his ministrations.

Her legs begin to tremble and Laurel abruptly pulls back from the kiss to gasp out, “If you don’t stop now I’m gonna come.”

Wanting her first orgasm of the night to happen when he’s inside of her, he removes his hand from between her legs and steps back so he can pull the pull the condom he keeps in his wallet out.

As he’s doing that, Laurel unbuttons his jeans and pushes them along with his boxers down to his thighs. His cock points up towards her and she feels herself become even wetter. She looks up when she hears the sound of foil being ripped open. 

Oliver’s eyes are dark with lust as he removes the condom its packet and quickly slides it on his straining erection. He then lifts her up and presses her back against the wall. Her legs instinctively wrap around his waist as his cock aligns with her entrance.

Oliver thrusts into her roughly, too wound up for anything else.

“Ohhh,” Laurel gasps at the feel of his cock deep inside of her. She presses her face against his neck as her walls clench tightly around him.

He begins to pounding into her, sighing happily as moans and whimpers fill the air. Just a few hours ago, he thought he’d lost his chance with Laurel and now that he has her back he never wants to let her go. He grunts and grips her ass in his hands so he can thrust even harder.

Pleasure builds within Laurel with every stroke and soon she finds herself on the cusp of her first orgasm. He moves in and out, over and over again.

And then Laurel erupts, her legs tightening around his hips as she works through one of the most intense orgasms she’s ever had.

Oliver continues his deep thrusts, but somehow manages to hold his own orgasm off despite the amount of pleasure he’s currently feeling. He wants Laurel naked and underneath him when he finally comes. 

“Let’s take this to your bedroom,” he says the moment Laurel comes down from her orgasm.

“Okay,” Laurel agrees and then Oliver’s pulling her away from the wall and heading that way. He’s still inside of her so each step causes a delicious friction when Laurel’s inner walls squeeze his cock.

Although it takes longer than it would normally would, they finally make it to Laurel’s bedroom. Oliver carries her over to the bed and reluctantly pulls out of her.

Both grunt in disappointment at being separated, but he takes the opportunity to remove the rest of his clothes before climbing on top of her.

He pushes her knees up and thrusts his cock back inside of her, groaning with relief at being reconnected. Laurel wraps her legs around his back and grabs the back of his head, pulling him down for a passionate kiss.

“I’ve missed this,” she whispers against his lips.

She says it so quietly that he almost doesn’t hear her, but when the words register he begins to thrust harder and faster inside of her, desperate to make her come.

Oliver buries his face in her neck, inhaling her scent each time he breathes. She arches against him and he moves more erratically as he feels his own orgasm begin to creep up.

Sliding in deeper, his eyes meet hers as he rocks his hips into hers. “I thought about this so many times.” He feels his body tighten as he plunges into her wet heat, thrusting into her in a way sends sparks through every cell of her body.

“Harder,” Laurel cries out, her walls clenching around him with each stroke. Soon she feels a flood of heat begin to flow through her body and she moans.

Her head flies back as she explodes, her walls taking him in deeper and deeper until Oliver stiffens and lets out a roar of his own. He continues to thrust his cock in and out of her, only stopping when he feels the last of his climax.

When Laurel comes down from her own high, she unwraps her legs from around Oliver’s hips and allows them to drop back down to the bed.

Their gazes meet and Oliver immediately begins to smile. He has the love of his life back and this time he’s going to make sure they do things right.


End file.
